1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved system and method for combining data obtained from the NEXRAD(trademark) system of the National Weather Service (xe2x80x9cNWSxe2x80x9d) with geographical and topological data base information to achieve an improved and informative graphical storm-tracking display able to predict and project the direction of a storm with a single user-operation.
2. Technical Background
NEXRAD is a system of weather services provided by the NWS. NEXRAD employs a system of radars scattered throughout the country which provides weather data to subscribers. Subscribers, such as television stations desiring to transmit weather broadcasts, use data from the NEXRAD system in its basic form. Current systems of subscribers typically extract simple storm information from the NEXRAD data to provide viewers with basic storm location information.
One NEXRAD service is the xe2x80x9cNEXRAD Attributes.xe2x80x9d This service provides the subscribers with detailed information concerning storms detected at each NEXRAD radar site. The NEXRAD Attributes data includes the following information for each storm:
The typical current NEXRAD system used by a NEXRAD subscriber receives NEXRAD data via a satellite downlink or over a wired network connection into a computer, such as the computer illustrated in the attached FIG. 1. Then, the current subscriber""s system extracts the azimuth and range information of the subject storm. From this information, the current systems can plot a two dimensional representation of the storm. Most of the other information in the NEXRAD Attributes goes unused by current systems, although the user, typically a meteorologist, can review this data manually.
One problem with a subscriber""s current system is that in order to predict the movement of a storm, the user must manually create projections from the NEXRAD Attributes data. Current systems do not have the capability to create a graphical representation of the storm movement from the NEXRAD Attributes data without substantial human involvement.
Moreover, the current graphical storm display is typically limited to simple two dimensional representations of the storm""s location and little else. Typically the viewers of weather displays based on the current systems have only a vague concept of the proximity of the storm to their location. Current systems are incapable of displaying NEXRAD projection information concerning those storms in any appreciable graphical way.
A method for projecting storms using NEXRAD attributes comprising the steps of:
(a) collecting NEXRAD data attributes from a weather data source;
(b) calculating storm position using the collected NEXRAD attributes;
(c) calculating projected storm movement using the storm position and the collected NEXRAD data attributes;
(d) displaying a graphic representation of the projected storm movement;
(e) determining the communities in the path of the projected storm movement.
In addition, the present invention, in a preferred embodiment further comprises the following steps:
(f) displaying the communities indicating the estimated time of arrival for the projected storm;
(g) sorting multiple storms;
(h) displaying the sorted storms in order of priority; and
(i) displaying single storm details.